Broken
by Tyr'll
Summary: That which is broken cannot be fixed unless it wishes to be fixed...
1. Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly across the lawn of a rather impressive mansion as a young fourteen-year-old girl strode towards a small bridge connecting two sides of land across a river. Her hand clenched at her sides, her stride was angry and stiff.

_This is a story, of a young man…_

"Goddamn it!" the dark haired girl swore, dark eyes piercing holes through her cut short brown hair. "Goddamn HIM! Goddamn this LIFE!" Slowly a pair of crystalline tears began to build at the corners of her narrowed eyes.

_His family was killed in a traffic accident, leaving their huge fortune to him. All the money he would ever need…_

"Why the hell did we get stuck with him? Why is it me that has to suffer in this life?" The girl felt the hot tears running down her cheek, to her chin, and then take a leap, landing with a small 'plisk' into the river of koy beneath her.

_But something was missing…_

"If it wasn't for the fact that bastard has leverage with his money, we could be rid of this nightmare of a job…forget Pochi! We could live without him." Slowly, the young girl began to wipe the tears away from her face.

"I want to go home…"

_Every child needs a companion, somebody to converse or to fight with. Someone to hate or to love. Every child, no matter how rich or knowledgeable, or introverted, needs someone. He had no one…_

"Stupid pervert," she muttered. "I miss my mom and Karin. I miss our house, being able to enjoy life without need of worry…"

She paused for a moment before adding, "I guess I miss dad a bit too, even if he is as bad as that bastard. He is family…"

_His family was gone, all he had was his money for company, and that was no company at all. Feeling desperate and lonely, he did the only thing that came to mind…_

Slowly the girl began to make her way back towards the large house, tears left behind, along with some of the stress she had been carrying. It wasn't easy, her job. Full of danger and pressure.

And all the stupid and perverted uniforms. Why was she picked on to wear so many of them?

_He tried to hire someone to keep him company, to help him take care of himself and the large estate left to him. To buy somebody's time for him, somebody's comfort, somebody's friendship…_

_And it almost worked._

"Damn pervert and his uniform fetish…" the girl murmured to herself. "He deserves to burn in hell for his perversion." And she felt she meant it. Taping her in the bath, sharing the videos with coworkers and even causing her sister to fight against her at times. "How does he always get away with it?"

_Two young girls arrived at his door, recent runaways with only their clothes and a pet crocodile that needed shelter. Seizing the opportunity (as he was about ready to settle for a middle aged woman to share company with instead of these two girls his age) he hired them, doing everything he could to force them to stay, indebting them to him…_

Finally reaching the front door once again, the dark haired girl opened it up and entered the large building, at once beginning to head up the stairs and back to her duties. She jerked back, however, when a stray bit of broken banister caught her maid outfit and ripped it, causing her to trip.

After a few minutes she rose up, staring sadly at the broken piece of decorative wood. Yet another addition to her debt.

_True, the boy admitted to himself several times that he was in the wrong with his attitude at times, but he would have to be blind not to appreciate the beauty before him, and besides, only one of the girls, now numbering three after a small incident, minded._

_It was all in fun, and he was a growing boy, hormones raging. He knew who he was, and he wasn't a self-sacrificing hero or a member of a religious brother hood. Nobody really liked him anyways, so what was the harm?_

"Will this nightmare ever be over?" the girl thought, slowly trudging up the stairs. "I wish…"

_Wishes are funny things. They don't always go as planned. The young boy wished for companionship, and, expecting a housekeeper, ended up with a group of cute maids._

"I wish…"

_They don't always come true, but when they do…_

"I wish there was a way for us to go back home…"

_Like it or not...lives will change._

"…and never come back."

* * *

Yoshitaka was a young pervert. He even admitted it to himself (but only himself), and was surprisingly happy with it. It just wasn't like him to hide his hormones. Appreciation of beauty is an art; he would quote to himself during any time of self-doubt, to which the undeniable result was a quick trip to the video archives.

Currently, however, any thoughts of perversion were pressed from his mind by the simple pressure of the challenge that Mitsuki was bound to announce at any time now.

"Why don't we have a contest, master?" Mitsuki shot out suddenly, as if some divine thought had entered her head.

"Knew it," Yoshitaka mumbled to himself.

"In order to decide who gets the day off, we could-,"

"Forget it, Mitsuki. You all three can have the day off. Go do whatever…"

In that instant, everything in Mitsuki's mind went crashing down. "Huh?" was the only thing she could get out while trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Yoshitaka never let them all have a day off at once, and he never backed off from one of her challenges.

"He didn't even swoon when I called him master…"

When the thought to ask him what it was popped into her mind, however, the young boy had already moved far from Mitsuki's line of sight.

"Master's probably just having a bad day," Mitsuki reasoned. "He'll be fine tomorrow. In the meantime…" she shouted as her eyes flashed brilliantly, "SNACK TIME!"

Barreling downstairs, the bright haired maid ran right by a still waking Anna, who had apparently spent the entire night doing…something. It was still early in the day, though, so there was so much they could all do.

"I'll ask Izumi what it is she wants to do…" Mitsuki started thinking as she poured batter into a pan, the sizzle of frying food emanating from the stove. The young maid began to hum to herself, letting her natural inner-cook make the food while her mind wandered.

Truly, while Mitsuki's mind operated differently than most people, she was by no means ignorant of anything around her. Life interested her, and making friends came easily to her, so she never really felt lonely.

However, even if she had never really felt it herself, she could feel the cold emotion clinging to some people. She did her best to make lives happier, to rid those people of the lonely emotion that she could feel emanating from them. She was proud of the work she had accomplished.

And then she met Yoshitaka. At first glance, he seemed nice enough, a real gentleman. Yet, after living with him for a while, it became obvious that he was by no means the most gracious person on Earth. But Mitsuki just wasn't happy looking closely, she wanted to look underneath.

And that was where she found it.

The feelings of loneliness just rolled of the boy like waves from an ocean. The pain he was in seemed enormous, and it shocked the poor girl for a while. It was soon after that that she decided she would do what she could to make that boy happy, like all the others she had in the past.

Yoshitaka seemed to realize what she was doing, and the girl had always felt a twinge of pride when he mentioned how she seemed to understand him the best. It felt like she was accomplishing something. Proof came as the waves of sadness he had once shown began to diminish, and he became even friendlier towards his blond employee. He had always shown a tolerance for her much above that he had shown for others.

In a way, Mitsuki had once reasoned, it was really Izumi that kept all of the people in the house together, including Pochi. She acted as Anne's love interest, an idol for Pochi and Yoshitaka's hormones, and Mitsuki's older sister.

Yoshitaka had guessed right when he had given her the debt to give her reason to stay.

At times, Mitsuki even felt a bit left out, because she really had no one to chase after, and no one to chase after her, but these feelings quickly fleeted when her thoughts turned to the two perverts of the house.

Pochi and Yoshitaka.

She was here for them, for the alligator that she had raised and protected since birth, and that young boy whom had shown his true face only once.

There's something wrong with Yoshitaka…Mitsuki thought. He seemed…sad or disappointed just earlier…

However, allowing one's mind to wander did have its consequences, inner cook or not. Mitsuki smelt the food in the pan begin to fry, and she instantly reacted, pulling the pan from the stove and allowing her breakfast to cool before sliding it onto a plate. Then, like every morning, she headed to the pantry to find some of Yoshitaka's morning sugar concoctions.

A box of donuts seemed to look about right, so she quickly chose a few and placed them on a tray, along with a glass of milk and a thin vase of flowers. Even though the boy was already up, Mitsuki had a feeling he would be spending most of his day up in his room.

Still smiling to herself, she picked up her plate and scooped a portion of her cooked meal onto the young boy's plate, quickly turning so as to take it to his room before it got cold.

* * *

"Izumi…" Yoshitaka started slowly, staring at the dark-haired girl before him. Calling her here had taken a lot of will power on his part. After meeting Mitsuki in the hallway, he had continued back to his room, eventually bumping into the returning Izumi. Without really knowing why, he had invited her to come to his room for a talk. Now he had no idea how to begin.

"What do you want Yoshitaka?"

Yoshitaka cocked his head to the side. "What do I want? What makes you think I want something?"

"You always have something you want. What should make today any different?"

Yoshitaka moved across the room, sitting with a creak onto his rather lavish bed. With an unerring gaze, he asked the girl slowly. "You don't think today is any different than any other day of the week?" he asked. "Of the year?"

Izumi looked up at the boy's tone of voice. "Why, should it be?"

"No, of course not."

"Then you do want something."

Getting slightly exasperated, he replied stonily. "Did I say that?"

"No. But you implied it!"

"Look, you're my maid anyways, what difference does it make if I wanted something? I would just tell you. I wouldn't go through this pointless game of twenty questions!"

"OH, how was I supposed to know that, oh exalted master?"

Though he had waited for what seemed like forever for the girl across from him to call him by that title, it was understandable that the tone with which the word was said drove him to act rashly.

"What is your problem, Izumi?"

"You're a jackass, that's my problem! A hormonally driven sack of dung that only thinks about himself and his penis! God if it wasn't for that damn debt I would have been out of here so long ago! Far away from you and your stupid uniform fetish!"

Unseen by Izumi, Yoshitaka balled his hands up in his bed sheets so tight, his knuckles turned white. "Is that really how you feel…Izumi?"

"Of course! If you even really cared at all for me, you would know that I felt that way every minute of every day!"

"And all that's keeping you here," Yoshitaka calmly restated, "is your debt?"

"Yeah."

With almost a mumble, Yoshitaka inquired about Pochi. "Doesn't what happens to him matter to you at all?"

"Pochi is Mitsuki's thing. I couldn't care less."

"If that's really how you feel then, I guess I have no choice. Izumi, I had decided to tell all three of you the good news at the same time, and had hoped it would be at a later date, but circumstances force me to move from what I had originally planned.

As of today, Izumi, all three of you are fired."

* * *

Brushing her blonde hair away from her face in astonishment, Mitsuki slowly began to back away from the closed door before her. The laden tray she carried began to shake as she tightly clenched it to her chest, still careful not to spill anything, lest she be discovered in her eavesdropping.

Forcing herself to move, the blonde girl slowly placed the silver tray on the ground before the door, then turned and quickly made her way back down the stairs brushing her eyes with a delicate gloved hand.

"I think…" she muttered to herself, "if I move fast enough, I can still fix this."

_I can still fix this…_

* * *

"We're fired?! NOW WE'RE FIRED?! Do you think this is some kind of punishment?" Izumi howled in the boy's face. Her forehead was creased violently, eyes flashing violently. "Give me half a second! I'll get all three of us packed and out of your hair in an hour."

Just as violently as her outburst, the dark haired girl swung herself around, maid outfit billowing about her, and stormed out of the young master's room. With the rattling of the china around the room, Yoshitaka stood tall, his shoulders drawn back and square, and his hands clenched tightly at his sides.

"A punishment…" the boy quoted beneath his shallow breathing, "of course it's a punishment…"

Squeezing his eyes shut, Yoshitaka found his throat tightening around him, wrapping around a phantom ball placed in the center of his neck. Slowly he found his breathing beginning to grow more difficult as he began to hiccup.

"Of course…" he croaked out, "of course…it's a punishment…"

Growing dizzy, he began to stumble back, tripping and planting himself down on his bed. Finally, he began to give in, slowly moving his small hands up to his blurring eyes, rubbing his face and pushing at his bangs in a strange restlessness.

"It's a punishment…for me…but why…why…"

Slipping his fingers into his hair, he gripped it tightly and began to pull, the dull pain it brought easing his other hurt slightly. He could feel himself loosing it, and bit his tongue, ashamed at his weakness. A slight brush of something could be felt at his cheeks.

"Why…" he managed to get out in a choked sob, "why isn't it a punishment for you?"

At last, like the snapping of a twig or the beginning of a stream, he broke, curling himself up into a familiar ball and began to sob, wrenching his body violently and cursing his poor control of his bodily functions.

It just hurt so much.

* * *

With the slamming of the door behind her, Izumi stomped ahead, intent on making it downstairs and gathering the other girls so that they could leave quickly. With the shattering of china and the cold sound of clattering metal, however, she stopped momentarily to see what she had just walked over.

Before her lay the remains of a scattered breakfast and, sliding down a few stairs, went the silver serving tray that was usually brought up to Yoshitaka every morning.

"Mitsuki…" Izumi breathed out. She must have heard us fighting.

Making her way down the stairs a little slower, Izumi brushed her hand over the slick wooden banister. As a last moment, the middle school girl allowed the different items in the room to wash over her.

Everything in this house had meaning. It all held a small amount of power over her mind and thought. All of the bad experiences just seemed to bring themselves out of hiding, all to ambush her, steadily raising her temper once again.

Yoshitaka's acts of perversion and his objectifying ways, Mitsuki's selfishness, Pochi and Anna's suffocating love, it all came back to her in full color, reminding her of all the hardships she had suffered, and allowing her to try and think of any kind or happy thing had ever happened to her here.

What reason did she have to stay? Nothing could be remembered that allowed her a smile or a joyous thought.

It almost felt as though, in all her searching, she could find no other connections besides the now cleared debt to cut and allow herself freedom. However, something continued to sit out of reach.

Something caused her regret. Something in her heart allowed her mind to burden her with frustration, doubt, and a tiny bit of guilt.

Nothing was strong enough for her to halt for even a moment in her march to round up the two other maids though. It merely sat in her chest, as if to tell her she was doing something wrong.

"Wrong or not," she spoke to herself determinedly, "I'm still leaving."

"I am going home."

_From the Desk of Tyr'll_

Okay, first of all, this is a two shot, and the second chapter may or may not come out any time soon. I don't really expect a big response for this story, but I did want to show my support for the fandom. I do like HIMM, and read of it what I can, but honestly that isn't much, so…

Oh well. To those who care, I am also currently nursing a rather pushy plot in my head for a Teen Titans fic, and Imbedded Instinct may take awhile to come up.

I'm just so busy trying to find good fanfics to read, as they seem to be rather rare nowadays. Help me out, write some good stories.

Please?


	2. Chapter 2

I can still remember the good times.

I remember those days filled with laughter and happiness. I remember the weeks wasted away on those pointless excursions and silly, meaningless games. The games we played…

I remember the fun I had, playing those games. Time spent with friends. They were the best days of my life. They were the good times.

Where did those days go?

When was it I began to feel lonely once more? When was it I discovered how little I mattered in this world? Who would miss me if I died? Who would bury my body?

Who would remember me as the person I was? Who would remember Yoshitaka?

I remember the good times, and I remember how much I loved them. But even now, still surrounded by my maids, my only companions, I watch them leave as I have finally realized the truth.

_The good times were a lie._

* * *

"Sister, do we really have to leave? Should we really go?"

Stretching her arms high above her head, Izumi looked at her younger sibling with no small portion of her face covered in disdain. "Mitsuki."

The two girls stopped, as they stared at each other on the sidewalk of an empty street. For the first time in weeks, the sisters were alone together.

Izumi, crossing her arms protectively across her chest, started once more. "Mitsuki, we have every right to leave. In fact, we have no reason to stay with that pervert any further, which is in itself a reason for us to get out of here."

"Sister…"

"If you're worrying about Pochi, forget about it. You know what the conditions of the game were, so all you have to worry about is if that midget dictator might be untrustworthy in any way."

Moving to object, Mitsuki found that she could not. Her throat closed up, her vision blurred and the girl began to get a strong craving for a glass of water.

The movement did not go unnoticed. "See, you know I'm right. That bastard was the worst. He was a pervert, an inhumane skirt chaser. He was a blackmailer. He was simply an all around bad person. Staying with him any longer would have been dangerous…well, more dangerous. I know you feel bad about Pochi, and I know you saw that perverted lizard as a beloved family pet, but you have to remember that you are more important to us than some alligator."

Quickly snatching the hem of Mitsuki's shirt, Izumi began to once again march away in the direction of their family's house. "That debt had us tied up, Mitsuki, but now that it's gone, we're free! We can go back to live with our family, with our parents and our sister. Doesn't that make you happy? I did this for us. I may have hurt the little bugger's feelings, but he's had worse. He'll shape up again, and he'll probably find another group of women to enslave and torture. He'll move on. We should too. We have to go home."

With another tug, feeling the resistance her sister put forth, Izumi felt her frustration boil over. "Why won't you come home with me?! Did you enjoy being watched and lusted over twenty-four seven? Did you enjoy the humiliation, the fear, the power he held over us? Did you like it back there? Why are you resisting? Do you want to go back there!?"

"Yes."

Momentarily shocked, as she fully expected the questions to go unanswered, Izumi was at a loss for words. "What?"

"Yes, I want to go back."

"Why? That place was hell! We don't need him, we don't have a reason to stay!"

"But," said Mistuki, her voice low, her eyes lowered, "I think Yoshitaka needs us."

The answer came to her so forcefully; Izumi took a step back before snorting, her laughter filling the quiet street with an unfamiliar noise and emotion. "He's got all the money he needs. He can hire new maids. He doesn't need us, stupid. He survived without us before we came. He's survived since…"

Izumi sobered very quickly after this line of thought. "Since his parents died…"

* * *

I guess the easiest way to describe my parents would be 'unfair'.

I know that people tell me all the time that life isn't fair, that the world isn't fair, that the decisions brought down by the almighty power of whatever God exists aren't fair.

They weren't meant to be fair. They weren't meant to be unfair. They simply are.

My mother was a wonderful woman, and my father was a blackmailing scum ball. My mother would burn salad while my father could cook the most delicious meals. They were a paradoxical pair. In all their faults, however, I still found that I loved them.

I still found that I missed them, if only a little bit.

Mitsuki, Anna…Izumi, they all played a part in my life after the passing of my parents, and now that they're gone as well, I guess I must have loved them too. The feeling in my chest…it's too similar a hurt to just after my parent's death to ignore. I miss them.

When they left, we played one last game. I guess that was all Izumi would allow. I can understand that, she wanted to get away from here as soon as possible. Away from me.

I can't even remember what game we played, but I know I lost. Pochi's still here, so I guess that must have been a victory condition for the girls, that I take care of him.

I wish I could.

We may not have always gotten along, but Pochi was a friend…is a friend. He was a fellow pervert among women, so to speak. He was a companion.

Which is why I can't allow him to be brought down with me.

* * *

"Don't you think the Master's been acting a little strange recently?"

"Dammit, Mitsuki, he isn't our master anymore!"

"What is he then, sister?"

"A pervert and a jerk."

"I don't think you mean that."

"Of course I do! How many times do I have to say it? I hated the little panty-chasing, debt-collecting, evil little…little…"

"Kid?" This line Mitsuki offered slowly, suggestively. She allowed her sister a moment to respond before pressing harder. "Is that what you were going to say, sister, that the perverted scum ball you have been raving about since you met him is a child?"

"Of course not! I was going to say that the shortie brat was a gay bastard, but that made me question my sexuality, so I was trying to find a better term for him and I found one. Shit-faced freak!"

"Did you just call him a poopie head?"

"NO! I said shit-faced freak!"

"Don't they mean the same thing?"

Irritated beyond words, her temper rising in her cheeks, Izumi only just found it in herself to keep from screaming at her younger sister in frustration. Clenching her teeth and swallowing her pride, Izumi could feel her anger welling up insider her breast. It burned, fuming at having been denied vent. _She may not understand now, but I did it for her, _Izumi thought.

_I'm doing this for Mitsuki._

"Please, Mitsuki." Izumi pleaded, "Please. Let's go home."

Beginning to feel sympathy for her elder sister, Mitsuki tried to bargain. "How about we go to check on him one last time? See if he's doing alright. I…really feel bad leaving him alone like this."

* * *

Despite all my earlier misgivings, I guess I really am starting to get used to this being alone thing. It definitely doesn't hold the drawbacks that having my maids around me twenty-four seven did. And don't misunderstand me; there were plenty of drawbacks. One of those was definitely the debt business.

My parents did leave me their estate and all their worldly wealth, however I'm really not old enough to hold all that money anyways. At eighteen I would be entitled to the whole fortune, but at present I live off of an allowance. I'm allowed our estate due to the peculiarity of my parent's will, and my allowance is indeed astounding in all regards. However, it is still an allowance, and limited at that.

Damage done to my home, travel expenses, living essentials and non-essentials for at least four people at a time was and always has been paid for from my own pocket. It was fortuitous that I have inherited both my inane luck and my skill in managing money from my father.

If only I hadn't also managed to inherit one of his less desirable features…

Okay, I admit I got more than one of those blasted flaws, but this one really puts it all over for me. I have recently realized that I may have gotten my father's bad luck as well as his good luck.

My father was by all means a lucky man. That is, he was lucky unless he wasn't. And when he wasn't lucky, which usually came to him at very inopportune moments, he would lose much.

And in a few recent losses, I feel I must have gained this trait.

I'm just glad that I won't be taking the girls down with me. There's no way they would come back anyway. I hold no hope.

I feel…resigned to say the least. I have finally severed ties with that which I valued most, and I feel now is the perfect time to slice and dice at other ties I have with this world.

I'm actually unsure about why I had to throw the girls out so early in my descent, but I suppose it was for the best. I have the distinct impression that somebody might have stopped me, tried to help me through this.

And I can't have that. This has to be done, and I've known for a while now that I would be the one to have to do it.

I won't lie and say that I don't dread the thought my descent. It terrifies me. I really don't want to leave things this way, but…

I guess I've just been so tired lately. It's exhausting, the time I spend everyday balancing checkbooks and managing investments by night. And I haven't been able to sleep well either. Insomnia, stress or worry, whatever it is that keeps me awake, I'm tired of dealing with it.

Well, at least with this set up, I guess I am dealing with it, once and for all.

I'm just glad Mitsuki isn't here to see me now. Izumi might laugh, but then she might not.

I just hope she doesn't regret having met me. Or forget how much I loved her.

* * *

"I'm going back."

Izumi ground her teeth together as she tried to understand. _why, Why, WHY, __**WHY?!**_ None of this was making any sense.Why did Mitsuki want to go back? Why did she feel any sort of connection to that idiot? Why did she worry about him so much?

Why does she worry more about that damned pervert than she cares about her own sister's happiness?

"Are you coming, Izumi?"

"Like hell I am," Izumi seethed. "And you aren't going either? Can't you see what he's doing? He's tearing us apart. I love you, Mitsuki, you're my beloved sister! Why don't you trust me when I tell you that the best thing you can do for yourself **and for me** is to just come home? Why can't you just forget about Yoshitaka and live a happier life with us?" Izumi didn't even see it coming. She didn't see it fly forward and strike her, but Mitsuki's slap stung more than just her face. It left a mark on more than just her cheek. With tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, all Izumi had the strength left to do was fall back on her butt, stare up at her sister's enraged eyes and ask, "Why?"

"Because I love him."

"You…love him? More than…me?"

Mitsuki's eyes softened, as she slowly began to understand what her sister wanted. "No, Izumi, not a chance. There's nobody in this world that I love more than my big sister."

Izumi sniffed, "Of course not!"

"I just think…Yoshitaka needs my love more than you do right now. I think he needs to feel it, to believe in it. I think Yoshitaka needs to know that he's loved, that he isn't alone anymore. I've always had you, sister, but Yoshitaka doesn't have anyone. Don't you feel sorry for him?"

"I-if you put it that way…I guess…a little…"

Mitsuki smiled. "See? I knew you were my sister. You really do have a big heart. And I'm sure Yoshitaka holds a special place there, whether you know it or not." Izumi's face instantly flushed a light pink, as she sputtered to deny her sister's vague accusation. "It's okay, sister. We both know that, deep down, Yoshitaka isn't really a bad guy. He's just lonely, and a pervert," Mitsuki finished with a smile. "And he needs us more than ever. So we're fired. So what? That doesn't mean we have to cut all connections with him. Right?"

Izumi finally began to calm. She could feel the crushing pressure on her chest begin to lift. Her breath began to calm, perhaps slower than natural now, but that didn't matter. The blood pounding in her ears had finally subdued and she could finally see clearly when she used her sleeves to wipe her eyes clean of tears. "Yeah, I think I have a few things to apologize for. I think I may have hurt his feelings…a bit."

Mitsuki smiled widely as she offered her sister a hand to lift herself up with. "Don't worry. Yoshitaka has always been very understanding in his own way."

"Yeah, I know," Izumi sniffed as she lifted herself up, "but I think I may have stepped over a few lines this time…"

"I'm sure he'll forgive you. After all," Mitsuki whispered in her sister's ear, "he loves you."

"Yeah," Izumi mumbled. "I know…I'm wishing I didn't, but I know."

"See? It isn't so hard, is it? Now, let's go back and give a proper goodbye."

Izumi smiled sadly at her sister, "You mean you don't want to ask for our jobs back?"

"Of course not. If my beloved sister wishes to go home, then home we should go, right?"

"You know, Mitsuki, I'm beginning to wonder which one of us is the older sister."

* * *

The mansion is on fire.

This was not in any of my plans. I was hoping to simply fade away into obscurity, to disappear without a trace. Take a few personal belongings and flee, run and keep on running. After all, I have nothing to gain here, and everything to lose.

I don't want to die.

Especially not today, not on my birthday…

But I guess it's fitting. I've always dreaded this time of year. The date on which I was born into this world, and the date on which the fate of my coming year is decided. Do I live as a king, or do I die broken?

Each year, on this day, my fate is decided. My father, the eternal poltergeist that he has become, continues to haunt my very existence. He left in his will, a final addendum declaring that to continue to receive my allowance I must remain lucky. My luck is to be determined by a dice roll on a date a few weeks before my birthday. If I roll a two or higher on a simple six sided dice, I live in luxury for another year.

If I roll a one, I have to wait until I'm eighteen to get so much as another look at my family's fortune. No second chances.

Despite the odds, this year fate conspired against me. Without money to pay my debts, without money to purchase food, water, heating…

Without money to keep my precious maids with me…

As the smoke filled my bedroom, billowing out from beneath the crack beneath my door, I sat on my bed.

The room was getting rather warm, and my skin was beginning to get irritated by the heat. My cheeks burned like they had just been nicely sunburned, and my eyes stung so sharply I couldn't open them.

Of course I don't want to die, but for what reason do I have to live?

Do I need a reason to live? Or is that a luxury I can no longer afford?

I forced my eyes open only for one last moment as I strove to enjoy what could very well be my last living sight, the beautiful landscape that was spread before my bedroom window. Glancing briefly below, I felt myself smile briefly at the river of Koi that swam just three stories below, under my window. I remembered the feeling of freedom I once felt as I dove to the depths of that bright, clean river.

Reaching out my hand, I brushed my fingertips across the pane. Against my heated skin, the glass was surprisingly cool, resilient. What vision that stood before me could very well be my future, but this cold pane was just too sturdy for me to break, with my strength fading fast.

Some firm barrier was stood between freedom and me. Perhaps it was death…

If I died, would anybody remember me as Yoshitaka? Would my maids mourn my death? Or would Izumi dance frivolously on my grave?

_Probably_, I thought as my closed eyes began to feel comfortable. _After all_, I continued, as the smoke forced me to the ground, and my already closed eyes began to darken and the surrounding heat began not to matter to me anymore. I was finally tired and ready to sleep, disregarding my feelings of light-headedness as the smoke began to fill my lungs.

"After all, I'm almost as unlucky in dice as I am in love…"

* * *

Mitsuki gasped at the sight of Yoshitaka's mansion as she and her sister arrived to witness the disaster.

Izumi was wide-eyed, too shocked for words as she watched her home of some time burn to the ground. As dismal as the mansion was, as many unhappy memories as it carried, it had still been her home for so long.

The short haired former maid turned her head go look at her sister when she heard Mitsuki gasp sharply.

"Mitsuki…?"

"The stove," her sister gaped in horror, "when I cooked breakfast this morning, I forgot to turn the stove off…"

"Mitsuki!?"

"This is my fault!" she cried out. "I burned down Yoshitaka's house! And what if he's still in there with Pochi? I've killed them!"

"Mitsuki! Calm down! Don't panic - don't panic - don't panic…" Izumi hopped from foot to foot, her legs shaking and her fists clenching in obvious panic. Her eyes dilated as her vision seemed to get sharper, her heart pounding and her voice only barely squeezed loose. "Do you really think they're still inside? Don't you think that he would have noticed that his FREAKIN' HOUSE WAS ON FIRE AND GET THE HELL OUT?!"

_Why now? _Izumi's frantic mind questioned, _Why now, when I was supposed to apologize for all of those horrible, awful things I said? Why did his house have to go up in smoke? Is he still inside with Pochi? _

_Is Yoshitaka going to…die?_

"No way…" Izumi chuckled to herself. "There's no way he's still inside. He would have gotten out a long time ago." Izumi's breathing began to calm.

"Sister?"

"It's alright Mitsuki," Izumi forced out, struggling to calm her thundering heartbeat. "This is Yoshitaka we're talking about, right? He's like a cockroach. He wouldn't die even if you killed him and then nuked his body." Izumi ignored her sister's shocked face, instead relying on her now rampant logic to soothe her weary conscience. "I mean, just look. The whole mansion is only three stories tall. Even if he was in his bedroom, on the highest floor, he could always jump out, right? Yoshitaka can do that, can't he?"

Izumi had to pretend that she didn't recognize the shift in Mitsuki's face from shock to pity, as she pleaded with some higher being that might reside in her sister for the answer to her illogical query. "Yoshitaka can't die, right?"

It was only then, in her state of stress-induced relaxation, that Izumi's dilated eyes picked up movement in the upstairs bedroom through the window.

She saw one young boy gaze out the window, then slump to the floor.

Her heart froze, and her legs obeyed not her logic, nor her heart, but the instructions sent to them from could only be described as sheer desperation, driven only further by the screams of her sister.

Now only beating irregularly, Izumi's heart seemed to thump out two messages in tandem.

_Don't die - don't die - don't die - don't die…_

_I'm sorry…_

* * *

"Izumi!"

"It's okay, Mitsuki. I got him."

"But he isn't breathing!"

_- Silence -_

"Breathe!"

_- Silence -_

"Breathe, dammit!"

"You did it. He's breathing Izumi. He's breathing."

"He's alive. Thank God, he's alive… Quick, we need to dry him off, or he'll only get sick."

"Can we take him home with us, sister?"

"…he's not a stray, Mitsuki, but yes, taking him home with us might be best. At least, after we take him to the hospital. He can stay with us as long as it takes for him to get back on his feet."

"Of course…and Pochi?"

"Didn't see him. Maybe he was already outside…"

"I hope so…"

"Mitsuki?"

"Izumi…I was so scared."

"It's okay, Mitsuki. I'm fine, Yoshitaka's fine, and Pochi's probably waiting for us back at home. Everything is fine now."

"But, Master's house…"

"Houses can be rebuilt, Mitsuki. People can't. Besides, it'll probably just go onto our ever-insurmountable debt. After all, the guy's loaded, right?"

"I guess…"

"See? Everything's fine…just fine. I'll apologize when he wakes up, and everything will go back to normal. You'll see.

Everything will go back to the way it was before."

_From the Desk of Tyr'll_

Well, it's finally finished. I hope those patient enough to see this story through were properly entertained.

BTW, I went back to the first Chapter and changed all of the references of 'Mitsuke' to 'Mitsuki'...hope that was the right thing to do.

This work has been one of emotion, or what I hoped simulated emotion. To state it simply, it was an experiment.

Let me know what you guys thought as you read it. I need to know, to see if I really should do any other works like this. A bit dark, but not too much so, I hope…

Thank your all for your support.


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